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[All information taken directly from Divash's post. Thank you very much! biggrin 3nodding ]

Baptism vs. Mikvahs
There's a reason it sounds like baptism. Baptism is a ritual stolen adapted directly from Judaism for Christian purposes.The philosophies and purposes of the two are different, however.

Baptism happens once in a person's life, generally, and is used explicitly and solely for the purpose of bringing the individual into the Christian covenantal society. It is said to wash away sins and make the individual spiritually clean in order to be able to serve Jesus as a newborn being for the rest of his or her life. Baptism is the act; the facility is called the church (building) or the font (actual body of water, if the water isn't a river or lake).

What is a Mikvah?

Mikvah is the name of the immersion facility (both the building and the body of water; also applies to natural bodies of water which are outside buildings), not the immersion itself. The immersion itself is called t'vilah (immersion). Instead of once in life, mikvah immersion takes place many times. Some people bring baby daughters for immersion as part of a b'rit bat, or simchat bat (covenant of daughter, or joy of daughter -- new ceremonies to welcome daughters into the covenant of Judaism, meant to be parallel with the circumcision of boys). I know one family that lets each daughter immerse once during the week before becoming bat mitzvah and once after her first menstrual cycle, whichever comes first. After that, a girl/woman doesn't immerse again until four (or fewer) days before her wedding. Then she counts her days... I'm not going to describe the feminine process here, but suffice it to say she immerses about once a month for the rest of her married life, barring pregnancy, until she is past childbearing age.

Boys and men immerse as well. Some only do so in the days leading up to marriage, while others do so in preparation for any important milestone, or right after an important milestone -- a birthday, an aliyah, starting a new tractate of Talmud study, completing a tractate, whatever. Others immerse every time they have an emission (again, I'm not going to discuss the masculine process here, but if you're male, PM a knowledgeable male on this guild and I'm sure he'll clue you in). Some immerse every single morning before Torah study; these tend to be Chasidim, but not always. Unlike women, men don't have to immerse singly. I've known communities in which all the students of a given rabbi will go and immerse in a group, then dress and go to Torah study; it's a very spiritual experience, I'm told.

What is the purpose of a mikvah?

Unlike baptism, mikvah is not meant to wash away sin or wrongdoing. There is a difference between sin, uncleanliness, and impurity. Sin means actively engaging in doing something wrong, or actively avoiding doing something that would have been the right thing to do, or even doing something wrong accidentally or because one didn't know it was wrong. Uncleanliness refers to physical dirt, grit, grime, sweat -- the filth of the physical world. Impurity is neither of these things, and it's not a great word to use as a translation for the term tum'ah (impurity) or tamei (impure), as contrasted with the terms tahor (pure) and taharah (purity). Unlike sin versus virtue or uncleanness versus cleanness, the status of tum'ah does not carry within it an inherent need for its reversal. The only real benefit to becoming tahor versus tum'ah is that once one is tahor again, one can enjoy marital relations with one's bashert. Every single time one immerses in the mikvah, one is reborn, as it were, as a brand new being, as pure as the day one was born.

But it does not free us from the obligation of correcting our misdeeds.(1) Judaism opines that wrongdoing cannot be erased, but can be corrected through sincere repentence -- being faced with similar circumstances that lead to a previous wrongdoing, but doing right instead -- and making amends. Not by washing in a baptismal font. (2) And rather than immersing only one time, we are reborn many times. (3) Also, we do not rid ourselves of wrongdoing by shifting the blame from ourselves onto a human or half-divine sacrifice. We, and we alone, carry our own responsibilities and answer for ourselves.

am i allowed in here?

I thought I would add this helpful site. If you plan to be on vacation or otherwise away from home during your time to visit the mikvah, you might be able to find one listed at http://www.mikvah.org

Also, there are books published every year with titles something like "Jewish Traveler's Guide 2007" or thereabouts. Any Jewish bookstore, Judaica store, or Jewish website should have them. In addition to listing (some/many/most) kosher restaurants in a given city or area, they'll almost always list the mikvaot, if they have one.

Mikvah Opening, Part 2

I went in with the last tour group. I figured I could wait, seeing as how I'd already seen the mikvah during the construction phase. All I hadn't really seen was the finished product, with all the fixtures and plaques and decor in place.

Our mikvah location is very private. To get to the mikvah, you go outside the synagogue, to the back parking lot, away from prying eyes. Entering the first door, you step into a small room. Really small -- I think about 5 feet in front of you, and eight feet out to the right, because you enter at the left edge of the room. On the far right is the attendant's seat, arranged that way to allow people to enter without tripping over the attendant, and without her getting in the way of wheelchairs. The walls and floors throughout the mikvah structure are porcelain tile, made to very closely resemble Jerusalem stone, and as an amateur potter and architecture fan, I can tell you that they are VERY hard to distinguish from the real thing. The lighting throughout the entire structure is quite bright, yet not harsh, somehow -- a very soft, soothing, non-glaring light.

The walls contain two plaques in the entryway, both of etched glass. One lists the top ten donors, and the other contains a few Biblical quotes concerning mikvah, water, and/or holiness; they sound very romantic when all placed together like that. Next time I'm there, I'll try to take a picture or write down what's on the plaques so I can post about it. There's also a coat closet behind the attendant's desk, and one can sit on a little loveseat to await her turn to go inside. There's a thermostat system in place, keeping the temperature warm and comfortable. For additional comfort, all the floors in the place are heated, with the exception of the entryway.

When the attendant calls you inside, you'll enter through another door and be shown to one of two preparation rooms. The only difference between them is that one is larger, to accommodate wheelchair users or those who need or want someone's assistance in preparing. Each room contains a very white porcelain sink set in a granite countertop with attractively shaped stainless steel fixtures, a very white toilet, and a very white bubbling spa/jacuzzi tub with an enormous 'rainfall' showerhead, meant to provide the most relaxing, thorough shower and a feeling of great luxury. A towel rack holds a towel for your body and another for your hair, and a hook on the wall holds a terrycloth bathrobe. These things are changed out for every single guest at the mikvah.

There's also a small table in each room which holds a basket of the supplies most often forgotten by people packing their mikvah preparation bags: toothpaste and disposable toothbrushes, dental floss, shampoo and a comb, fingernail clippers and brushes and emery boards, nail polish remover and cotton balls, facial cleanser, and packets of disposable slippers. The idea is to be thoroughly, scrupulously clean before immersing. One removes all nail polish, all jewellery, and combs her hair straight (or, ahem, as straight as is possible) to get all the tangles out -- sorry, no weaves, hair extensions, cornrows, or other hairstyles that can't be removed/unwound during mikvah prep. Atop the sink countertop sits a picture frame which holds a beautifully calligraphed checklist of what one should do during mikvah preparation before calling the attendant.

Once you're ready, you'll put on your robe, then call the attendant to give you one last check. She'll check your neck and back for stray hairs; other details, she'll check only if you ask her to do so. This is also where a mikvah attendant performs a discreet but vital service to the community: she checks each woman for stray hairs, but also for bruises, scratches, or other scars or injuries. If she sees any, she'll ask, "Is everything all right at home?" or something to that effect -- nothing overt, like "Is your husband beating you?" but just something to let a woman know that she cares, and is willing to help if needed. The mikvah attendants are trained in how to contact Shalva, a referral organization that helps Jewish women deal with domestic abuse by providing referrals to therapists, doctors, shelters, legal assistance, and so on.

After checking yourself and being checked by the attendant, you're ready for the next step. So you'll put your robe back on, slip on a pair of disposable slippers, and the attendant will lead you to the next room: the immersion room.

Continued in next post.

That sounds amazing; thank you so much for posting all of that!

That would be great Divash! I find them so interesting, but the closest one to me is in Oklahoma. :

The description actually reminds me of the bath houses in Hot Springs, but I don't know if you've ever been there. They probably take a lot of their regulations from the mikveh, because Hot Springs used to have a very heavy Jewish population, and I think it still does.

I'd totally love pictures though. I've seen some really luxe mikveh's in my day, so I'm curious.

That's so cool; thank you for the link! I didn't even know they had one in Missouri! biggrin

If you don't mind me asking, is there some sort of specific requirement or age limit for mikvahs, or can anybody do it?

There is no specific age limit for men. Some men go there with their rebbe, fellow students, even their sons. They all splash about, talk Torah, and then get out and dress and go about their day.

For women, the mitzvah is to immerse alone, just you and Hashem in the water. Orhodoxically speaking, a woman isn't permitted to go to the mikvah until four (or less) days before her wedding; it's meant to discourage one from having pre-marital relations. However, some Reform and Conservative Jews do go for more occasions, and a few Orthodox are starting to take up the practice. I know a woman who's taken all three of her daughters to mikvah several times. Once just after being born, once before their first day of school, once before they become bat mitzvah, once before graduating high school. Sadly, I also know women who have immersed after being sexually assaulted; they felt they needed something to 'wash off' the filth of the experience and feel renewed again. I think it's a good idea, though I hate the fact that it's ever needed.

Of course, converts also immerse as part of their conversion process; it's the final step. You enter the water a non-Jew, and you immerse, and you come up as a Jew.

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Kingpin: The pools don't need to be very big. Just four feet square, and at least four feet deep for the water. Just enough for even a very large person to get in, duck all the way under including all her hair, and stand up again.

If you want to immerse, find a mikvah run by a Conservative community, or one that permits non-Orthodox women to immerse.